Species
+

Malus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.

Aapel, Apple, Apple (EN), Common Apple

Climate known 45 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

An apple is the round, edible fruit of an apple tree. Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple, the most widely grown in the genus, are cultivated worldwide. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia before they were introduced to the American continent by European colonists. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Apple”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Malus

Malus is a genus of about 32–57 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the rose family Rosaceae. It includes the domesticated orchard apple, crabapples, and wild apples.

Text from Wikipedia, “Malus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
(Suckow) Borkh.
Native to
Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Tadzhikistan +5
Wild records
68 in range· 20 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Jul, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
588mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 68 mm (CHELSA)
Light
5–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 588 mm a year, wettest June at 68 mm, driest February at 33 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -30.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Malus anetica Poit. & Turpin; Malus anetica subsp. rubra Poit. & Turpin; Malus anisophylla Sumnev.; Malus apetala Münchh.; Malus apetala Poit. & Turpin and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (443 mm of 588 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 31.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 588 mm a year, wettest June at 68 mm, driest February at 33 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

588 mm a year at the habitat, 443 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 68 mm, driest February at 33 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 381 mm to 990 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 5 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -30.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -30.8 °C, the absolute minimum -41.5 °C, about 187 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -14.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -16.6 °C to -7.8 °C), warmest day 24.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -30.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 70% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from -8 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul; mean night from -14 °C in Jan to 15 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 588 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 9 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -41.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-60°-40°-20°20°40°frost33.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-41.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 5–41RH 53–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 9 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-8 / -10–2-8 / -8–5-1 / -2–1210 / 7–2118 / 15–2623 / 20–3124 / 22–3322 / 20–3216 / 14–278 / 6–19-2 / -2–11-7 / -8–4
Night °C-14 / -17–-8-14 / -15–-6-8 / -10–-1-1 / -2–77 / 4–1313 / 9–1815 / 12–2013 / 11–198 / 6–142 / -1–7-6 / -9–0-12 / -15–-6
Rain mm37 / 20–5833 / 22–5438 / 25–7037 / 23–10653 / 35–12868 / 38–10363 / 47–17761 / 28–11358 / 22–8254 / 25–9446 / 24–8540 / 21–72
DLI7 / 4–1614 / 10–2323 / 19–3232 / 29–3838 / 35–4141 / 38–4337 / 35–4232 / 28–3823 / 18–3212 / 9–237 / 5–175 / 3–14
RH %69 / 56–7465 / 57–7061 / 57–6557 / 52–5953 / 50–5755 / 49–5856 / 51–6057 / 50–6158 / 51–6059 / 53–6365 / 56–6870 / 56–72

Each figure is the median across the 9 grid cells holding the 9 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 719:4621 (54.025, 51.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -41.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -30.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 9 distinct grid cells holding the 9 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 719:4621 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 54.00_51.250, lapse-corrected +45 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 188 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Qinghai, Xinjiang, Pakistan· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Baleares, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Ukraine, Azores, Madeira, West Siberia, Turkmenistan, North Caucasus, Cyprus, Iraq, Inner Mongolia, Korea, East Himalaya, Nepal, West Himalaya, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria, Alaska, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Ecuador, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Falkland Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker43.124, 76.84 · in the densest population, 61 records (90% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 68 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 20 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 733 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 59 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 68 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Malus domesticaMalus domesticaMalus domesticaMalus domesticaMalus domesticaMalus domesticaMalus domesticaMalus domestica

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Alexander Dubynin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Malus domestica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Non‐destructive optical detection of pigment changes during leaf senescence and fruit ripening
Mark N. Merzlyak, Anatoly A. Gitelson, О. Б. Чивкунова, V. Yu. Rakitin (1999) · Physiologia Plantarum
Light-Induced Expression of a MYB Gene Regulates Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Red Apples
Adam M. Takos, Felix W. Jaffé, Steele R. Jacob, Jochen Bogs (2006) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
High-quality de novo assembly of the apple genome and methylome dynamics of early fruit development
Nicolas Daccord, Jean‐Marc Celton, Gareth Linsmith, Claude Becker (2017) · Nature Genetics
If Homogalacturonan Were a Side Chain of Rhamnogalacturonan I. Implications for Cell Wall Architecture
Jean‐Paul Vincken, Henk A. Schols, Ronald J. F. J. Oomen, Maureen C. McCann (2003) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Long‐term exogenous application of melatonin delays drought‐induced leaf senescence in apple
Ping Wang, Xun Sun, Chao Li, Zhiwei Wei (2012) · Journal of Pineal Research
Wild vascular plants gathered for consumption in the Polish countryside: a review
Łukasz Łuczaj, Wojciech M Szymański (2007) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Delayed senescence of apple leaves by exogenous melatonin treatment: toward regulating the ascorbate–glutathione cycle
Ping Wang, Lihua Yin, Dongli Liang, Chao Li (2011) · Journal of Pineal Research
New Insight into the History of Domesticated Apple: Secondary Contribution of the European Wild Apple to the Genome of Cultivated Varieties
Amandine Cornille, Pierre Gladieux, M.J.M. Smulders, Isabel Roldán-Ruíz (2012) · PLoS Genetics
Regulation of floral initiation in horticultural trees
J.D. Wilkie, M. Sedgley, Trevor Olesen (2008) · Journal of Experimental Botany

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Malus 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 14 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.